Moving Allen was tough for me to stomach, but I understand the need to strengthen the bullpen. Pena can step into Dotel’s role next year and could become more valuable now if Carrasco moves into the rotation. … The trading of Allen slightly alleviates a logjam at the corners. Konerko probably takes over as the designated hitter. If the Sox don’t re-sign Jerma[in]e Dye, that would pave the way for Dayan Viciedo or Josh Fields to play first.

Kenny Williams, GM, White Sox – There’s a good chance Williams is looking into Halladay, though in an e-mail he wrote, “I don’t kiss and tell.’’ Williams recently traded for Arizona reliever Tony Pena, and it might be he can trim payroll by dealing closer Bobby Jenks, who makes $5.6 million and appears to be in demand. Williams made a deal for Jake Peavy, who nixed it, and gave up power-hitting prospect Brandon Allen for Pena. So, with Pena, Scott Linebrink, Matt Thornton, Octavio Dotel, D.J. Carrasco, and rookie lefthander Aaron Poreda in place, Jenks could bring a lot in return. The White Sox simply haven’t drawn as well as expected.

Manager Ozzie Guillen calmly states that the White Sox have “no other choice” but to stick with Clayton Richard in the rotation. But in the same breath, Richard’s struggles even prompted the young lefthander to almost beg out of the rotation! …

On the surface, trading away Brandon Allen for Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Tony Pena was a slight head-scratcher, especially with how well Allen played in the spring and for Class AA Birmingham. But the Sox are finding out that Dayan Viciedo is not a third baseman and likely will have to be moved to first base. Considering they have Paul Konerko and Josh Fields at first on the big-league team, something had to give.

“We need an arm we can count on and to hold those guys for the seventh, eighth and ninth,” Guillen said. “We set up from the sevent to the ninth. “Most of the time, I’ve got to use a guy for more than one inning or overuse him because I don’t have the right men to cover up those innings, and that’s the reason we [brought] him here.”

KG: I think the catching future is still debatable, he’s just so huge a sluggish back there. That said, there has been some progress — they’ve shortened his release a bit, and the results are encouraging.

Three years ago, Kenny Williams traded for a talented but erratic right-handed reliever with favorable service time. It cost him a lower-ceiling Double-A pitcher with a solid track record, and an A-ball pitcher with a more promising arm.

The more basic problem is that he [Tony Pena] just wasn’t pitching well, even as the third-best reliever on the staff. This year’s setback also isn’t remarkable in light of his fall from grace in 2008: whereas he was one of the invincible three amigos in the Snake pen of 2007 with a 4.244 WXRL, last year he dropped off to a merely good 1.611. Change your flavor to a rate-based metric, and Peña’s FRA has gone from 3.01 to 4.87 to 5.27. The situational dominance against right-handers that underlay his ’07 breakthrough with a 521 OPS bounced up to 695 last year, and is back down to 629, and might be lower still if not for bad breaks with BABIP. Nevertheless, lefties are pasting him at a .317/.403/.524 clip, which suggests that he’s going to be something of a situational right-hander for a staff that sort of already employs Octavio Dotel in the role. He doesn’t seem to lose that much effectiveness with men aboard, and he’s still basically the same pitcher he was before in terms of throwing mid-90s heat and a good slider. …

Digging deeper, Pena’s 2.36 K/BB and 0.79 HR/9 have resulted in a solid 3.72 FIP, between his career average of 4.01 and last year’s 3.42. Pena’s good pitching in high leverage innings combined with the ability to shoulder a relatively heavy load (157 IP between 2007-2008) have made Pena worth 2.2 wins since 2007 (including 2009 so far). …

Pena throws hard. His average fastball velocity is 95-MPH, and he also features a hard slider and a changeup, both pitches have been effective offerings for him this year. For someone with stuff as good as Pena’s, it’s surprising he doesn’t strikeout more batters; he’s actually been rather average in that regard. (6.55 career K/9, 6.88 this season). Pena has better control than average and for someone who has pitched in a rather hitter-friendly park, he’s done a fine job of keeping the ball in the yard. He has a 4.24 ERA now, but much of that can be blamed on some bad BABIP breaks (.352). …

July 7, 2009

Pena is a solid righty out of the pen, but is nothing truly special. His K/9 is 6.88, and his BB/9 is 2.91 this season. He also gets ground balls 46% of the time, not bad for a reliever. His fastball clocks in at around 95 MPH, and he also throws a slider and the occasional change up. His slide piece has solid movement on it, as does his change.

The Chicago White Sox have acquired right-handed pitcher Tony Pena from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for minor-league infielder Brandon Allen. Pena, 27, is 5-3 with a 4.24 ERA (16 ER/34.0 IP) and one save in 37 relief appearances with the Diamondbacks in 2009. He leads the club with eight holds and ranks second in games pitched. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder is 16-13 with a 4.08 ERA (101 ER/222.2 IP), seven saves and 63 holds in 209 career relief outings with Arizona (2006-09). He has limited right-handers to a .224 (100-447) lifetime average and ranks fourth among all major-league relievers since 2007 with 61 holds. Pena’s best season came in 2007 when he went 5-4 with a 3.27 ERA (31 ER/85.1 IP), two saves and 30 holds in 75 appearances. He limited the opposition to just 63 hits and a .207 average in his second major-league season.